Reading the Shape of Nature: Comparative Zoology at the Agassiz Museum (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations) - Hardcover

Winsor, Mary P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226902145 ISBN 13: 9780226902142

Verlag: UNIV OF CHICAGO PR, 1991

Inhaltsangabe

Reading the Shape of Nature vividly recounts the turbulent early history of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and the contrasting careers of its founder Louis Agassiz and his son Alexander. Through the story of this institution and the individuals who formed it, Mary P. Winsor explores the conflicting forces that shaped systematics in the second half of the nineteenth century. Debates over the philosophical foundations of classification, details of taxonomic research, the young institution's financial struggles, and the personalities of the men most deeply involved are all brought to life.

In 1859, Louis Agassiz established the Museum of Comparative Zoology to house research on the ideal types that he believed were embodied in all living forms. Agassiz's vision arose from his insistence that the order inherent in the diversity of life reflected divine creation, not organic evolution. But the mortar of the new museum had scarcely dried when Darwin'sOrigin was published. By Louis Agassiz's death in 1873, even his former students, including his son Alexander, had defected to the evolutionist camp. Alexander, a self-made millionaire, succeeded his father as director and introduced a significantly different agenda for the museum.

To trace Louis and Alexander's arguments and the style of science they established at the museum, Winsor uses many fascinating examples that even zoologists may find unfamiliar. The locus of all this activity, the museum building itself, tells its own story through a wonderful series of archival photographs.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mary P. Winsor is associate professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Victoria College, University of Toronto. She is the author ofStarfish, Jellyfish, and the Order of Life: Issues in Nineteenth-Century Science.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: UNIV OF CHICAGO PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1991
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0226902145
• ISBN 13: 9780226902142
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 342
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar